P55 Roundup: Gigabyte P55-UD6 / P55-UD3 and MSI P55-GD80

Almost two weeks after the official release of the Core i5 platform, we review three LGA1156 motherboards. We put the Gigabyte P55-UD3 and UD6 through the same batch of tests as the MSI P55-GD80 and check who comes out on top. Next to that we have some surprising results for those who want to use Turbo mode and also have a look at the extreme overclocking capabilities of both high-end motherboards. Last but not least we publish our findings on the maximum voltages for the Core i5 platform.

Gigabyte P55-UD6 - Pictures

Founded in 1986, Gigabyte started as a research and development team and has since taken the lead in the world's motherboard and graphics accelerator markets. To truly reach out to all consumers, GIGABYTE further expanded its product portfolio to include more diverse digital products such as Notebook and desktop PCs, digital home appliances, networking servers, communications, mobile and handheld devices, servicing every facet of people's lives at home or at work.

Everyday, GIGABYTE aims to “Upgrade Your Life” by knitting a global network to effectively honor its commitment to world wide customers. What's more important, GIGABYTE wishes all users to see and feel the brand through its products and all the touch points from GIGABYTE to the hands of all users.

The P55-UD6 motherboard comes in quite an impressive package size-wise, but doesn't contain a huge amount of extra's. I guess Gigabyte doesn't want to draw any attention away from what is the most important part of the package: the motherboard. Underneath a list of the contents.

6 x Sata cable

5 x Manual

1 x Drivers disc

1 x I/O Shield

1 x SLI connector

1 x IDE cable

1 x Molex to 2 x Sata power

1 x E-sata bracket

Motherboard

(Click for bigger version)

This board definitely has the looks of a high-end motherboard, containing 24 (tweny-four!!) phases for the CPU and quite the chipset cooling system. Unlike all other P55 motherboards, Gigabyte has added an extra two memory slots for those who want to run more GB's of memory; do note that this board does not support triple channel memory. Overall, the motherboard is as complete as it can get having more than enough sata and usb connection ports to add more devices. Only drawback on the board is the weirdly placed power button; why place it next to the 24-pin power connector and not close to the reset and clear cmos button?

Underneath a list of specifications:

8 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports

6 x Audio jacks

2 x RJ-45 LAN ports

2 x eSATA/USB Combo connectors

2 x IEEE 1394a ports

1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port

1 x Coaxial S/PDIF Out connector

1 x Optical S/PDIF Out connector

1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port

2 x PCI slots

2 x PCI Express x1 slots

1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot

1 x PCI Express 2.0 x8 slot

1 x PCI Express 2.0 x4 slot

10 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors

3 x System fan headers

2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers

1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector

1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector

1 x Floppy disk drive connector

1 x IDE connector

1 x CPU fan header

1 x Power fan header

1 x System fan header

1 x Front panel header

1 x Front panel audio header

1 x CD In connector

1 x S/PDIF In header

1 x S/PDIF Out header

1 x IEEE 1394a header

1 x Serial port header

1 x Clear CMOS button

1 x Power button

1 x Reset button

Comment
from Massman@ 2009/09/21

Recent findings actually push me in the direction of the GD80 in terms of overclockability.

32M is both faster and higher clocked with same or a bit less voltage :-)